The country’s manufacturing activity fell to 48.2 index points in January 2017, down from 52.0 recorded in December, the Central Bank of Nigeria said in its Purchasing Managers’ Index released on Tuesday.

The report showed that while the manufacturing PMI dropped to 48.2 index points, the non-manufacturing PMI stood at 49.4 points, indicating a slower decline compared with the 47.1 points recorded for December 2016.

In the PMI report posted on its website, the CBN said, “A composite PMI above 50 points indicates that the manufacturing/ non-manufacturing economy is generally expanding, 50 points indicate no change and below 50 points indicate that it is generally declining.”

Though the manufacturing PMI grew in December 2016, it had recorded declines for eleven consecutive months and averaged 45.2 in the last 12 months.

The report showed that 10 of the 16 subsectors surveyed recorded decline in the month under review while the remaining six subsectors expanded.

Despite the decline in manufacturing activity, however, the report showed that the production level index for the manufacturing sector grew for the second consecutive month, standing at 51.3 points, indicating a slower growth when compared to the 57.6 points in the month of December 2016.

But this did not have any impact on new orders as well as suppliers’ delivery time during the period as they both declined with the latter standing at 48.5 index points while the former stood at 47.9 points.

Also, the report showed that the employment level index for the January manufacturing PMI stood at 45.3 points, indicating a decline in employment level for the 23rd consecutive month.

Similarly, the report showed that the employment level index for the non-manufacturing sector PMI declined for the 13th consecutive month in January 2017.

However, the report stated that at 45.6points, the index declined at a slower rate compared with the 43.8 points recorded in December 2016.